The present invention relates to an improved athletic or sports helmet, such as a football or ice hockey helmet, with a releasable or breakaway face mask or face guard. The invention relates in particular to an athletic helmet having an open frontal opening at least partly covered by a face mask, in which the face mask is attached to the helmet by adjustable fasteners, whereby the force required to detach the face mask from the helmet is readily adjustable, allowing the helmet to be worn by different users. The adjustable fasteners are designed in such a manner that they can be mounted on an existing helmet using the mounting hold originally used to secure the face mask to the helmet.
Athletic headgear of the type described herein is comprised of a protective helmet having an attached face mask or guard, normally comprised of a grid-like configuration of bars or rods positioned in front of the wearer's face, with the mask being attached in some manner to the headgear. This mask, while providing protection to the wearer's face, also creates a risk of injury to the user, since an opponent will occasionally, through intent or inadvertence, grab the face mask when attempting to tackle or restrain the wearer. As a result, the entire helmet may be twisted, potentially causing injury to the wearer's neck. Injuries of this nature are highly dangerous and can cause paralysis.
The risk attendant to the use of headgear with face masks is recognized in several prior art patents which attempt to address the problem by providing attachment means which hold the face mask securely to the helmet during normal use, but which will release the face mask from the helmet when the force applied to the face mask exceeds a predetermined amount. Normally, in the constructions disclosed in the prior art patents, the face mask is secured to the headgear with hook-and-pile material, clips, or some type of spring-loaded attachment. The following patents are illustrative of prior art constructions:
______________________________________ 2,986,739 Rozzi 3,283,336 Critser 3,889,296 Martin 4,233,687 Lancellotti 4,271,537 Bowlus et al 4,335,472 Rappleyea 4,363,140 Correale 4,495,657 Bay 4,748,696 Fohl 4,774,729 Coates et al 4,885,807 Snow 4,947,490 Hayden 4,985,938 Snow ______________________________________
While the above prior art recognizes the need for a releasable face mask, it fails to take into account the fact that the force needed to detach a face mask should be greater in some instances than others. Specifically, more mature players, i.e., adults and larger children, will be less subject to injury and can wear helmets in which release of the face mask from the headgear can be effected only with relatively high force, thus permitting some protection of the player, while still permitting a relatively high degree of physical contact, normally associated with playing of the game by adult players. On the other hand, when the helmet is to be worn by a relatively younger player, there is a need for a construction permitting a relatively easier release of the face mask, since the immature player may be more readily injured.
While headgear described in the prior art could be designed to meet the needs of any given wearer, the prior art has not provided a way for different players to wear the same headgear, with the releasability of the face mask being adjustable to meet the needs of the different players wearing the helmet. A construction of this type would be of great value in that there would be a considerable cost savings and convenience in allowing different players to wear the same helmet, while still having the safety feature of a face mask releasable at a force level addressing the needs of the individual user.
Thus, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an improved fastener for securing a face mask to a helmet in which the fastener can be adjusted to provide for different forces to release the face mask.
It is another object of the present invention to provide athletic headgear comprised of a helmet with a frontal opening, a face mask positionable over the frontal opening, and a plurality of fasteners for releaseably securing the face mask to the helmet, with the fasteners being adjustable to change the force required to release the face mask from the headgear.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved adjustable fastener for securing a face mask to an existing helmet in which the fastener can be mounted in existing mounting holes, thereby retrofitting helmets having non-releasable face masks.
Other objects will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon a reading of the detailed description which follows.